Sheriff: Gunman killed 3 people at home before going on rampage

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In this image provided by KEYT-TV, a car window is shot out after a mass shooting near the campus of the University of Santa Barbara in Isla Vista, Calif., Friday, May 23, 2014. A drive-by shooter went on a "mass murder" rampage near the Santa Barbara university campus that left seven people dead, including the attacker, and seven others wounded, authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo/KEYT, John Palminteri)

In this image provided by KEYT-TV, bodies are seen covered on the ground after a mass shooting near the campus of the University of Santa Barbara in Isla Vista, Calif., Friday, May 23, 2014. A drive-by shooter went on a "mass murder" rampage near the Santa Barbara university campus that left seven people dead, including the attacker, and seven others wounded, authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo/KEYT, John Palminteri)

SOnlookers gather near a black BMW sedan driven by a drive-by shooter on Saturday, May 24, 2014, in Isla Vista, Calif. The shooter went on a rampage near a Santa Barbara university campus that left seven people dead, including the attacker, and seven others wounded, authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

This image from video posted on YouTube shows Elliot Rodger. Sheriff's officials say Rodger was the gunman who went on a shooting rampage near the University of California at Santa Barbara on Friday, May 23, 2014. In the video, posted on the same day as the shootings, Rodger looks at the camera and says he is going to take his revenge against humanity. He describes loneliness and frustration because "girls have never been attracted to me." (AP Photo/YouTube)

Richard Martinez who says his son Christopher Martinez was killed in Friday night's mass shooting that took place in Isla Vista, Calif., breaks down as he talks to media outside the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Headquarters on Saturday, May 24, 2014, in Santa Barbara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

GOLETA — A gunman who went on a rampage near UC Santa Barbara stabbed three people to death at his apartment before shooting to death three more in a terrorizing crime spree through a neighborhood, sheriff’s officials said Saturday.

The three people in the apartment were among the six left dead Friday night during the shootings near the college campus. Elliot Rodger, 22, the suspected gunman, apparently killed himself, authorities said.

At a news conference, Sheriff Bill Brown called it a “chaotic, rapidly unfolding convoluted incident” that involved multiple crime scenes.

Police provided new details about the scope of the killings as they described how he went from one location to another and opened fire on random people and exchanged gunfire with law enforcement before he crashed his BMW. Brown said the suspect had more than 400 rounds of unspent ammunition in his car.

Brown identified Rodger as a student at Santa Barbara City College.

Rodger fired for 10 minutes as he made his way through the beach community of Isla Vista where students were walking, biking and skateboarding in a deadly rampage that chillingly mirrored threats made on a YouTube video posted that same night, authorities said.

Seven surviving victims remained hospitalized with serious injuries, including Nick Pasichuke, a University of Pacific student from Alamo.

Pasichuke was visiting his former San Ramon Valley High School classmate and water polo teammate Tyler Martin in Santa Barbara when the suspect ran into Pasichuke and others with his car. He suffered two broken legs and underwent surgery Saturday at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, where the seven surviving victims were being treated.

Martin said two friends were riding longboards near his home about 9:30 p.m. when a car suddenly came up from behind and ran over one and clipped the other. Martin ran outside to help and tended to Pasichuke.

“As I was leaning over and trying to comfort him – he was in a lot of pain, obviously – I heard pop, pop, pop,” Martin said.

Pasichuke’s sister, Katie Pasichuke, 17, said there has been an outpouring of support for her brother at their home in Alamo.

“There has been a lot of support from the community, people calling, stopping by and also on social media, and we’re thankful for that,” said Katie Pasichuke. “My brother was very lucky to have been one of the survivors.”

Jill Pasichuke is with her son in Santa Barbara and was unavailable for comment.

Authorities confirmed Rodger was the shooter and said they had seized a semi-automatic handgun. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he was killed by gunfire in two shootouts with deputies or if he committed suicide.

Investigators were analyzing a YouTube video in which a young man who identifies himself as Elliot Rodger sits in a car and looks at the camera, laughing often, and says he is going to take his revenge against humanity. “It’s obviously the work of a madman,” Brown said.

Earlier Saturday, Alan Shifman — a lawyer who represents Peter Rodger, one of the assistant directors on “The Hunger Games” — issued a statement saying his client believes his son, Elliot Rodger, was the shooter. It was unclear how the son would have obtained a gun. The family is staunchly against guns, he added.

“The Rodger family offers their deepest compassion and sympathy to the families involved in this terrible tragedy. We are experiencing the most inconceivable pain, and our hearts go out to everybody involved,” Shifman said.

Richard Martinez said his son Christopher Martinez, 20, was killed in the shooting. He blamed politicians and gun-rights proponents. “When will this insanity stop? … Too many have died. We should say to ourselves ‘not one more,'” he said.

The shootings started around 9:30 p.m. in Isla Vista, a roughly half-square-mile community next to UC Santa Barbara’s campus and picturesque beachside cliffs.

Alexander Mattera, 23, said his friend Chris Johnson was walking out of an improv comedy show when he was shot in front of a popular pizza place. He stumbled into a nearby house.

“He walked into these random guys’ house bleeding,” he said.

Mattera was sitting at a bonfire with friends when at least one gunshot whizzed overhead. The friends ran for cover when they heard the barrage of gunfire.

“We heard so many gunshots. It was unbelievable. I thought they were firecrackers,” he said.

Describing the shootings as “premeditated mass murder,” Brown said a YouTube video posted Friday that shows a young man describing plans to shoot women appears to be connected to the attack.

UC Santa Barbara senior Kyley Scarlet said she heard the BMW smash to a halt outside a house she was in.

“We ran outside and saw a bicyclist had been hit,” she said. “Then the police dragged a body out of the car. It was him,” she said.

As vice president of student government, Scarlet said she called a UCSB associate dean of student to advise her a student may have been hurt.

Scarlet, who is a former sorority president, said two girls from a sorority next door were killed on the lawn of Alpha Phi, where a pile of flowers grew on Saturday. Crying students wandered up to the spot, shook their heads and hugged each other.

Scarlet said a third sorority member was wounded there as well. She said all three were in the same sorority, which she did not identify. She said they were neither in her sorority nor in Alpha Phi.

Scarlet said she was very disturbed by the video describing his anger at sorority girls.

“It’s hard thinking my actions, being part of a sorority, led him to do this,” she said. “When I saw that video I was shaking and crying.”

In the video, Rodger describes loneliness and frustration because “girls have never been attracted to me,” and says, at age 22, he is still a virgin. The video, which is almost seven minutes long, appears scripted. The identity of the person in the video could not be independently confirmed.

Attorney Shifman said the Rodger family called police several weeks ago after being alarmed by YouTube videos “regarding suicide and the killing of people” that Elliot Rodger had been posting.

Police interviewed Elliot Rodger and found him to be a “perfectly polite, kind and wonderful human,” but noted that he had few friends and no girlfriend, he added. Police did not find a history of guns.

Isla Vista, which is centered on university life with outdoor cafes, bike shops, burger joints, sororities and fraternities, was shrouded in fog and unusually quiet Saturday.

Police tape crisscrossed Isla Vista streets, while blood was still visible on the asphalt. Bullet holes pierced windows of a parked car and the IV Deli Mart. A small shrine of flowers was growing outside the business, whose floors inside were stained with blood. For much of the day, the wrecked BMW driven by the shooter remained on the street, its windshield smashed in and its driver’s door wide open.

Nick Pasichuke, of Alamo, was among the injured. He was visiting his former San Ramon Valley High School classmate and water polo teammate Tyler Martin in Santa Barbara when the suspect ran into Pasichuke and others with his car. He suffered two broken legs and underwent surgery Saturday at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, where the seven victims were being treated.

Martin said two friends were riding longboards near his home about 9:30 p.m. when a car suddenly came up from behind and ran over one and clipped the other. Martin ran outside to help and tended to Pasichuke.

“As I was leaning over and trying to comfort him — he was in a lot of pain, obviously — I heard pop, pop, pop,” Martin said.

Pasichuke’s sister, Katie Pasichuke, 17, said there has been an outpouring of support for her brother at their home in Alamo.

“There has been a lot of support from the community, people calling, stopping by and also on social media, and we’re thankful for that,” Pasichuke said. “My brother was very lucky to have been one of the survivors.”

Jill Pasichuke is with her son in Santa Barbara and was unavailable for comment.

The other friend was not seriously hurt.

Pasichuke played on the water polo team as a freshman at the University of Pacific this past season, and Martin, also a freshman, played for UC Santa Barbara.

In a statement, the university said it was “shocked and saddened” that several students were shot.

“This is almost the kind of event that’s impossible to prevent and almost impossible to predict,” UC President Janet Napolitano told reporters after giving the commencement speech at Laney College in Oakland.

Gov. Jerry Brown offered his condolences to the victims’ families, saying he was saddened to learn “of this senseless tragedy.”

The Rodger family is not ready to speak publicly yet, but wants to cooperate fully with police, Shifman said.

“My client’s mission in life will be to try to prevent any such tragedies from ever happening again,” he said. “This country, this world, needs to address mental illness and the ramifications from not recognizing these illnesses.”

Isla Vista has a reputation for excessive partying. Last month, an annual spring bash spiraled into violence as young people clashed with police and tossed rocks and bottles. A university police officer and four deputies were injured and 130 people were arrested.

The community has experienced other tragedies in the past.

In 2001, the son of “Ally McBeal” TV director Daniel Attias ran down four pedestrians with his car on a crowded Isla Vista street. Witnesses testified that part-time college student David Attias got of the car and shouted: “I am the angel of death!”

David Attias was ruled insane after he was convicted of second-degree murder.

Dillon and Mendoza reported from Goleta, and Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers Alicia Chang and Gillian Flaccus contributed from Los Angeles, and Frank Baker from Santa Barbara. Bay Area News Group staff writer Karina Ioffee contributed to this report.

Otto Warmbier was arrested in January 2016 at the end of a brief tourist visit to North Korea. He had been medically evacuated and was being treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center when he died at age 22.